When the Sarnia Sting woke up Sunday morning, they led the West Division and held the conference's second seed.

By late afternoon – without having played – they had plummeted to fifth. The Windsor Spitfires, breathing down their neck in the dash for the division title, briefly passed them by one point with a victory in Sault Ste. Marie.

Sarnia, though, recaptured the one-point advantage a few hours later with a 5-2 win over the Guelph Storm.

“We watch that thing religiously,” Sting assistant coach Chris Lazary said of the out-of-town scoreboard. “How do you not, that second seed's so important for both teams. It's a fun thing, in a race like this.”

The winner automatically earns second while the runner up, because of the three Monsters of the Midwest Division, will be fifth. This flip flop will likely continue over the season's final three weeks as both Ontario Hockey League teams continue to take care of business – Windsor has won five in a row while Sarnia earned all six available points this past weekend by sweeping Barrie, Owen Sound and Guelph.

“We knew coming into the weekend it was a big six points, Windsor's right on our tails so we can't give them anything,” Sting defenceman Jeff King said. “The other two games we handled them pretty well, this one (against Guelph) we got a little scare but we did what we needed to do and came out on top.”

Fittingly, the Sting and Spits still clash three more times, including a season-ending affair March 20 in Sarnia.

That should be fun.

As for their latest victory, Patrick White scored twice for the Sting (36-17-5-2) and Anthony Salinitri, Matt Mistele and Nikita Korostelev had goals, too, in front of 2,894 at the Sarnia Sports and Entertainment Centre.

“I felt my line was getting pucks deep, doing the dirty work and it paid off,” said White, who now has 16 tallies on the season, five better than last year's career high. “I just found we were protecting pucks, playing relentless hockey. We were all moving our feet.”

James McEwan and Jake Bricknell replied for Guelph (12-41-4-2).

“They're a good team,” Lazary said of the Storm. “They work hard, they come to play every night. It's a credit to them and their staff, when you have a record like that it's easy to throw in the towel but they play hard every night.”

After a scoreless opening period, the floodgates burst open with six combined goals in the second. Mistele drew first blood with a bank shot from the corner, his 28th goal.

McEwan responded 42 seconds later on a two-on-one rush, beating Sting goalie Justin Fazio. The netminder finished with 30 saves, including a breakaway stop on Liam Stevens to preserve a one-goal lead, and picked up an assist on White's short-handed empty-net goal late in regulation.

“It was a good game, we had our ups and downs, definitely, but a good, hard-fought win,” Fazio said.

Korostelev also converted in the middle frame on a fancy individual effort through the slot, and Bricknell answered for the visitors with an odd-man rush strike.

Finally, Salinitri scored for the third time in as many contests.

“I didn't have the start I wanted to this season but I'm starting to find my stride now,” said Salinitri, who has lit the lamp 12 times.

For just the third time in 29 games with Sarnia, forward Travis Konecny was held off the score sheet, snapping his 15-game point streak.

Meanwhile, Sting defenceman Alex Black returned to the lineup after a nine-game absence because of a neck injury.

“I was a little rusty at the beginning but it's nice to be back,” Black said. “It sucks watching so it was great to be back, we got a big win.”

Although it wasn't nearly as feisty as Sarnia's Saturday night battle in Owen Sound, King and Storm winger Jake Bricknell dropped the gloves late in the second period.

“It was fun, I usually don't do it too often but when I don't get punched in the face too many times it's a win for me,” King said.

Sarnia can go for the four-game sweep of the Storm when these teams meet one last time March 15 at the Sleeman Centre. In the meantime, the team's next game is Thursday at home to the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds.

NOTES

Sarnia forwards Noah Bushnell (hand) and Pavel Zacha (concussion) missed the game – Zacha hopes to return Thursday – which forced Connor Schlichting to move up to left wing from the blue line... Guelph scratched Kyle Rhodes (hand), Jacob Harris (concussion), Austin Hall (concussion) and Nate Schnarr (healthy)... Sarnia was 0-for-5 on the power play while Guelph was 0-for-3.